Kotaku East

After Brutal Murder, Taiwanese Gamers Apparently Kept Playing

On April 3, an 18 year-old man entered an internet café in Taiwan and stabbed another man to death. Even after that horrific event, some in the café apparently continued gaming. One patron reportedly did so in blood splattered clothes. Note: This post contains content that some might find disturbing. Reader discretion is advised. Shenzhen…

In Japan, Some of the Wii’s Network Services Are Going Offline

Today in Japan, Nintendo announced that a handful of its network services would no longer be offered. As of June 28 this year, Nintendo will end the following services: Forecast Channel, News Channel, Everybody Votes Channel, Nintendo Channel, and Check Mii Out Channel. What’s more, Nintendo is ending the ability to exchange data with friends…

Soul Sacrifice Looks A Lot Different In Book Form

Soul Sacrifice, the game where you battle deformed creatures, and make the choice to either save or sacrifice them is getting a Japanese book adaptation. Scheduled for release on the 25th of this month, according to Play Community on the official Japanese PlayStation website, apparently the book will be an original story set in the…

Japanese Gamers’ Worst Game of 2012 Is…

I think it’s safe to assume that popular opinion rankings are viewed by most people as just that: Popular opinions, not holy writ carved into stone. That’s partly why I enjoy when people reflect on the year past and rank their favorite and least favorite entertainment. While the West has Metacritic for its game rankings,…

This Restaurant Is a Nerd Paradise

Toys. Figures. Statues. For the past ten years, designer Woong Cho has collected memorabilia. And he decided he wanted to share his passion with the world. So, Cho created a restaurant with an amazing museum. It’s dubbed “CW Restaurant”, which is short for “Cinema World”, and is in Daegu, South Korea. The chic eatery is…

These Superhero Suits Cost US$200,000

Famed Japanese anime Science Ninja Team Gatchaman is coming to the big screen. And it’s bringing new Gatchaman suits with it. Those G-suits don’t come cheap! According to Japanese site Sanspo, the suits took one year to make, from concept to final outfit. The filmmakers needed costumes that not only looked good, but also that…

The Most Obsessive Vending Machine Blog I’ve Ever Seen

You know those people who take pictures of themselves everyday? Now imagine that, but with a Japanese vending machine. Since August 5, 2005, Japanese site I take a picture of the vending machine every day (or so). I’m very sorry. has uploaded well over two thousand photos of the same Coca-Cola vending machine. Photos go…

Bravely Default‘s Surprising Japanese Idol Influences

For several weeks after its release, every game store I went to was sold out of Square Enix’s 3DS game, Bravely Default: Flying Fairy. The game has proved to be a hit in Japan, thanks in part, indirectly, according to producer Tomoya Asano, to Japan’s biggest pop idol group, AKB48. According to Asano, in an…

The Darkest Cyberpunk Worlds In Japanese Video Games

Cyberpunk was a big deal in the 80s and in the 90s. Writers like Philip K. Dick and William Gibson, movies like Blade Runner, and anime such as Akira heavily influenced video games. The result was games with a dark, dystopian future, high technology and low life. We’ve gathered Japanese games from this era to…

Well, This Anime Looks Different. Thank Goodness.

For what seems like forever now, googly-eyed saccharine cute characters have dominated Japanese anime. In the past few years, there seems to be a sea change. This is a good thing. Granted, I don’t hate the cutesy moé style. I just like a little variety! And new anime The Flowers of Evil offers just that.…

League of Legends Server Problems Are Pissing Off Korean Gamers

In South Korea, League of Legends is popular—perhaps the most popular game at the country’s net cafes. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing. What makes being popular a bad thing? For starters, the League of Legends server always seems to be under maintenance. Last night, for example, LoL underwent emergency maintenance until…

Controversy Over a Cool Visual Technique Being Ripped Off [Update]

There’s a first time for everything. And once something is pioneered, others move in and make it theirs. But is that a rip off? One band seems to say so. Above, you can see a music video from the Australian group Clubfeet. The name of the song is “Everything You Wanted”, and it hit earlier…

This Fake Dark Souls Anime Is Brutal

While totally not a real anime per se, this hand-drawn fan-made clip mashes Dark Souls with Neon Genesis Evangelion. The title is “Dark Souls Neon NEET-gelion”. Originally from the UK, the term “NEET” means a young person who is not in education, employment, or training. As one would expect, this faux anime looks totally unforgiving.…

After “Gangnam Style”, There’s This Song and Dance

This is “Cutie Song”. In its native Korean, it’s called the “Gwiyomi” or “Kiyomi” song, depending on how you write it in English. And it’s the viral music craze that’s been spreading through Asia in the wake of “Gangnam Style”. Last October, the “Gwiyomi” jingle and dance originally appeared on a Korean variety show called…

Shinichi Watanabe, director of the quirky and hilarious anime Excel Saga, is currently recovering from a heart attack at a hospital. (Tip courtesy of tipster Sang.)

Let’s Compare My Little Pony Voices in English and Japanese

Despite being a phenomenon across the Western world these past three years, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic didn’t make its way to Japanese shores until last Tuesday. We here at Kotaku have already showed you the Japanese theme songs, but that doesn’t answer the real question on everyone’s minds: What do the ponies sound…

Gamer Might Just Be The Greatest Game Ever Made About Being a Gamer

Game & Wario is a new mini-game collection on the Wii U which is a spinoff of Nintendo’s popular WarioWare series. One of the included mini-games is Gamer, an aptly titled game about what it’s like to be a young gamer. Gamer is actually multiple games in one. The first is the overall meta-game. You…

Here Are Some Adult Games Made By Famous Japanese Developers

For better or worse, sex sells. And for some of Japan’s most famous game companies, it was what they sold when they first started making games. That’s right, many of Japan’s biggest game makers have turned to or even had their origins in pixelated pornography. Here are some of the more notable examples and some…

Want to Live in a Large Aluminum Box? In Japan, You Can.

Space can come at a premium in Japanese cities. Depending on the area, apartments can get incredibly expensive. One company thinks it has a solution: Aluminum boxes. Dubbed “T2”, the interior of this housing unit measures seven feet by 12 feet across. The ceiling is over seven and a half feet high. The dwellings look…

Akihiro Hino, president of Japanese studio Level-5, recently told Nikkei Trendy that things were still in the planning stages when asked if his studio was doing a PS4 title. “We might be able to announce something shortly,” said Hino.